Gray, Robert

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. M. Bumsted, “GRAY, ROBERT (d. 1828),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gray_robert_1828_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Office holder, politician, judge, and army and militia officer; b. c. 1747 near Glasgow; d. 12 Feb. 1828 in Charlottetown.
    • Like many Glasgow Scots, Robert Gray was employed in the American tobacco trade, and in 1771 he came out to Virginia as storekeeper and agent for a Glasgow tobacco merchant. Not surprisingly, when rebellion against Britain broke out in 1775, Gray supported the mother country and joined a volunteer corps raised by Governor Lord Dunmore.
    • In 1777 he was appointed a captain in Colonel Edmund Fanning’s King’s American Regiment, being in charge of the defence works on Goat Island during the rebel siege of Rhode Island in 1778.
    • His wartime commander Fanning was appointed lieutenant governor of St John’s (Prince Edward) Island in 1786 and soon after invited Gray, whom he regarded as “a gentleman of superior merit and worth,” to become (at £60 per year) his private secretary and “man of business.” 
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3353
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136735407/robert-gray